10 Top Recruiters Tell Us What Candidates Can Do To Wow Them

Career community Glassdoor recently published its annual list of top recruiters. These hiring managers have seen a lot of talent, but they can still be impressed.

We wanted to find out exactly how candidates can "wow" these industry leaders. So we asked the following professionals: Was there a candidate that totally wowed you, and if yes, how did they do it?

Below are their answers:

Carrie Corbin, associate director of Talent Attraction at AT&T:

"I’m wowed when I see candidates take the same approach to branding themselves as I take to branding our business. Job seekers with cohesive messages about strengths, goals or overall work style show me they are thinking not about how to get hired or say the right thing, but about how to showcase a cohesive message and tell me something meaningful about themselves."

Arie Ball, vice president of Talent Acquisition at Sodexo:

"I met a very interesting executive search professional via social media. She reached out to me via Twitter to learn more about Sodexo. We set up a time to talk, and she asked questions about what it was like to work in a corporate environment. We talked about the differences between the search firm environment vs. the corporate recruiting environment. Over the next several months we had several conversations on various topics, and I was able to see her depth of knowledge and diversity of thought, and her genuine love of the profession. About a year later, when we had an opening in our Talent Acquisition Group, I immediately thought of her."

Carolyn Eiseman, director of employer brand at Enterprise Rent-A-Car:

"While we get significant engagement through our social career platforms, we would love to see more candidates interact in a more innovative way, such as using hash tags, or presenting a more unique look at the skills they can bring to Enterprise."

"Candidates are getting more and more creative with getting attention. I've been impressed with several candidates recently who have built infographics, videos and even full-blown websites to convey their experience! I'm a sucker for creative people with an awesome design sense. But, this is not required to get the job. Not everybody has these skills, and we always go for the best person for the job."

Chris Hoyt, global talent engagement and marketing leader at PepsiCo:

"The last few candidates to really impress me did so because they had cared for the basics so well. They had connected with our organization on Twitter, taken advantage of the information available on our company website with regards to PepsiCo's history, done their homework regarding our culture and reputation on Glassdoor and introduced themselves to other team members via LinkedIn. It wasn't about doing amazing and out-of-the-box things to get our attention as an employer, it was about doing the right things really well."

Jeremy Langhans, manager of Global Talent Acquisition at Expedia:

"She DM'd me on Twitter and is now my intern!"

Chrystal Moore, senior recruiter at Philips Healthcare:

"I found a candidate on LinkedIn over a year ago and unfortunately after interviewing, the position did not pan out. We stayed connected on LinkedIn and throughout this past year, this candidate reached out to me periodically as well as commented and, or, liked my LinkedIn status updates. During this time, I thought, 'Wow … this person is really engaging and really wants to work for Philips.' This past month, I had a position that became available, and I knew that this candidate was a perfect match. I shared the candidate’s information with the hiring manager as well as mentioned the level of passion this person has for Philips, and long story short, we made an offer."

Shannon Smedstad, HR social media and employer brand leader at GEICO:

"Over the years, I have definitely been wowed! Candidates that are 'wow-worthy' are typically very prepared, engaging throughout the interview, communicate well, can articulate the value they add, and also let their personalities shine through."

Melissa Smith, candidate developer at Progressive Insurance:

"I think sometimes candidates think being 'wowed' needs to be flashy or complicated, but it doesn’t. One of my recent successes comes from a candidate we recently hired for a senior analyst role. He actually found me through my posts about Cleveland and our analyst opportunities at Progressive. He was relocating to Cleveland as a trailing spouse and when he found me realized we had both moved from Wisconsin to Cleveland. I scheduled a brief call to learn a bit more about him, and we hit it off from the beginning. He’d been following my posts so he asked great questions about the city, my company and then got to asking about specific positions he’d seen me post. I think the thing that wowed me was that he did his homework and was prepared to engage and ask questions. He starts with us in just a few weeks."

Will Staney, director of recruiting at SuccessFactors:

"At my last company we had a candidate take our specific cloud-based presentation software and create a presentation-style resume for us. She tweeted this presentation to our company, and I noticed. After I shared this internally, the CEO tweeted back to her suggesting they talk further. Needless to say, she got the job and came in as a rock star because folks knew her unique story and were impressed by her creativity in taking our own product, using it to get noticed, and showcasing relevant skills for her position. You can read more about that story here."

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